I like to have a cheat sheet when filling in my ballot. Not necessarily for the big choices like mayor or City Council — those are easy. But when voting for port commissioners, it’s probably best for me to have help. The best guide I’ve found for this election is the Washington State Progressive Voters Guide — it’s got information on all candidates and, of course, lets you know which ones the ‘progressive’ group backs.
Here’s your chance to endorse the endorsements, guides and various other tools available online (and off?).
The Progressive Party endorsed Joe Mallahan ( http://www.waprogparty.org/candidates.html), as did the Seattle Times. Bob Santos and Dawn Mason, two well respected Central District residents, have also endorsed Joe. Joe is co-endorsed by the 37th District Democrats and won the straw poll at the Southeast Seattle Candidate Forum. Of all the mayoral candidates, only Joe Mallahan and Wyking Garrett have a clue about our area. Nickels can’t even be bothered to show up at events in our neighborhood. McGinn talks about “hostile streets” and means that they’re ugly, not that we have a drug problem or drive by shootings.
Mallahan is our best chance for leadership change in Seattle.
As for Port, Rob Holland is an easy choice to make : ) He was the chair of the 37th District Democrats and he’ll bring a balanced view to the position.
Whatever else you do, however, VOTE.
So if you have not attended candidate forums, been reading the Times, the Stranger and innummerable blogs, or met with candidates, it can be difficult to make choices. The voters guide you received in the mail should give you a good idea. It is also online here: http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/elections/200908/contest
You can also poke into websites of folks you are interested in, and see who their contributors are (very enlightening!) here: http://www2.seattle.gov/ethics/eldata/filings/campaigns.asp?
One value of the Fuse guide is that they did at least note who of their member organizations endorsed various candidates. But, most of these are national, corporately or institutionally, sponsored groups. They also leave out candidates if none of their coalition happened to support them. For example, there is an upstart grassroots environmental group that is supporting Rob Holland and Max Vekich for Port.
The mayoral and council races are not simple this year. When it comes to running a city or running the port, national politics matter in the sense of giving an idea of the perspective of the candidates. There is a lot more to running a city than that.
There are a LOT of great candidates, and these were NOT easy choices for me personally. Since I already gave money to many of them, it’s probably not a secret so I will share Ha! And, I’m sure we will all get over it if our favorite does not win.
The real question for executive is background and experience needed to do the job of managing a huge operation that spends OUR money, and fairly prioritizing for the breadth of needs. For that reason I am supporting Joe Mallahan and Ross Hunter. Wyking and Dow were my second choices.
On the council, where the political positions shape our laws, and where we need people who actually KNOW how legislation works, and who have engaged citizens in the process, I’m supporting Licata, Bloom (Dorsol was my second choice), and Miller.
For school board I’m supporting Joanna Cullen, again because she is someone who has been deep in the process from the inside, working with parents, teachers and students for many years.
And for judge I’m supporting Anne Ellington, just based on her background.
Whoever you decide on — please VOTE!!
Voting in Seattle can be frustrating for any non-Democrat, as it can for Independents and even many centrist Democrats. When the majority of candidates do not share your priorities, it is too easy to not participate. But if we actually make an effort to support the more rational candidates in these races, we can make a difference
Your best guide as a voter and citizen is your own appraisal of the candidates and issues. Please read their statements in your Voters Pamphlet and look at their websites.
King County:
King County Executive: Preferred Susan Hutchison
Court of Appeals: Preferred Anne L. Ellington
Port of Seattle Commission Position 3: Preferred David Doud
Port of Seattle Commission Position 4: Preferred Tom Albro
City of Seattle:
Mayor: Acceptable James Donaldson
Seattle City Council Position 4: Preferred Sally Bagshaw
Seattle City Council Position 6: Acceptable Jessie Israel
Seattle City Council Position 8: Preferred Robert Rosencrantz
Referendum No. 1: REJECT”
for more about these suggestions see http://seattlerepublicans.org/
This thread is a great idea! I’m glad to see some diversity of opinion – jd98, you saved me the effort of looking up the republican endorsements…
Here are two more not yet mentioned:
Seattle Times has editorial endorsements – http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2009553086_
The Stranger also has endorsements, but I’m probably going to heavily discount them them based on their dismissal of both our local school board candidates (Andre & Joanna). http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/endorsements/Content?oid=
Agreed on the Stranger. Yesterday KUOW reported that both of their school board candidates had “padded” their resumes- Smith-Blum of dist 5 claiming a major in statistics she doesn’t have and Patu of dist 7 claiming a masters she doesn’t yet have. Anyhow, they are completely out of touch with local school issues.
Apparently, as of yesterday, only 5% of King Co. had voted. One week left to cast your ballot.
I too agree on not taking the Strangers rec’s. They aren’t very neighborhood focused, but if you advertise with them they will support you. Lets all hope that Andre and Joanna do well.
Her association with the Discovery Institute alone, not to mention her other beliefs, belies the ‘rational candidate’ tag, in my opinion.
Second, what a wack job. One can find “The Darwin Myth” on the Discovery Institute’s site but no mention Hutchinson. Hiding from her board service past until after the election. The kind of deception we don’t need in our candidates.
Good for you.. the Seattle Timid and Pissedintelligencer could not bring themselves to cover the Court of Appeals race.. The Timid did endorse judge Ellington.. but failed to mention it on Sunday. Good for your posts